


Bonded

by vodka_and_some_sass



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-11-28 04:22:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20960402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vodka_and_some_sass/pseuds/vodka_and_some_sass
Summary: Loki finds himself emotionally bonded to an interrogation specialist and begins to grow fond of her. But war is approaching and can they be ready for it in time?





	1. Identities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new interrogations expert is brought in to question Loki.

When they told Loki that they were bringing in an expert to talk to him, he had definitely not imagined the tall and curvy woman with short, choppy hair, dressed in a blue sweatshirt and jogging pants. He watched the girl walk past his cell, her left hand hidden in the pocket of her sweatshirt while the right tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear. He saw her huff as it slipped out again, framing her face. His mind raced with thoughts on how he could make her squirm, metaphorically and physically. Interrogation with the fools who called themselves heroes was no fun. The Tinman often got frustrated before Loki could even begin to enjoy and the red haired assassin had stopped coming in, for what reason, he didn’t know. It would be a pleasant change to have a new plaything.

“How long do you need with him?” Iron Man asked. Loki turned slowly, drawing his shoulders back and straightening his spine. He found himself looking down at the woman, still in her sweatshirt and pants. She was taller than most Midgardian women, but in front of the god, she still seemed small, delicate even. Her brown eyes were warm and a rush went through Loki when he thought of how they would look brimming with tears.

“Oh please, Stark. Don’t rush her. We’ll need all the time we can get.” Loki’s words dripped venom and danger. He moved his gaze from Tony Stark to the girl, expecting to see fear in her features that she would attempt to hide by putting on a façade of bravado. Instead, he found her leaning forward slightly, her head cocked to the side as she narrowed her eyes quizzically at him.

“I’ve got what I need, Mr. Stark. May I talk to you outside?” Cora bounced once on her heels, shooting a smile at Loki before looking back at Stark. She didn’t miss the evident confusion flit across Loki’s eyes before he steeled them with anger.

“Do not ridicule me! If I am to be treated like a dangerous prisoner, then treat me like such! If you are going to treat me inconsequentially, then as you would any inconsequential object or thought, let me go!” In his rage, Loki had strode up to Cora and towered over her, his tall and lean frame just a breath away from her small and sturdy one. From the corner of his eye, he saw Tony Stark bristle, but not make to protect the girl.

Cora didn’t step back. She bent her neck slightly, just enough so she could meet Loki’s raging jade eyes. His hot breath brushed across her face as he glowered down at her. “I’ll be back to talk to you.” She let kindness seep into her tone. Turning on her heel, she walked out of the cell, Stark in tow.

As the soundproof doors slid into place, Loki watched her try to explain something to Stark, her words inaudible as her hands gestured things and actions that Loki couldn’t comprehend. Intrigue and anger warred within him, wanting to know what she had meant when she said that she got what she need without even having exchanged words with him but wanting to teach her in the most cruel ways possible how to respect a god. He settled into the cot that served as his bed, knowing he could do nothing but wait.

“Okay Smokes. What’ve you got?” Gathered in the room that allowed them to observe Loki without being subjected to his cold glare and scathing remarks were Thor, Tony, Callista Anderson and Cora herself. She chuckled at the nickname, pulling out a mint flavoured cigarette from its box in her pocket and lighting it. Taking a deep drag and letting the nicotine ride through her system, she looked out through the one way glass at Loki.

“He’s not really himself.”

“And what would you know of him?” Questioned Thor, his muscles bulging as he tensed, ready for a fight.

“Calm down Thor, Cora has done this before. Cora, maybe you should explain a little first, make things clear for everyone.” Callista put herself between Thor and Cora, her five foot frame doing nothing to intimidate the hulking god.

“I can read people,” Cora got up and moved to the board and grabbed a marker. She drew a stick figure within an oval and turned to Thor. “Every person has a signature, an aura if you will. It’s not something visible, even to me, but it is there, almost tangible. I’m just more attuned to it. And every person’s signature is tied intricately to their physical being and their brain, which makes each signature unique. Even identical twins will have different signatures, albeit the differences might be slight. Apart from being able to sense these signatures, I can access a person’s emotions through the signature. So I’m a pretty good human polygraph, though I assumed that with Loki it would be trickier, considering he’s the god of lies and whatnot.”

“So you’re telling us what we already know? That he lies?” Thor wasn’t impressed by Cora’s revelation. Cora wasn’t impressed with Thor’s attitude either. She guessed that being godly also came with being arrogant and downright rude. She ignored Thor, deciding that it would be for the best if she didn’t lose her temper. She turned to observe Loki again.

“Loki’s signature is shrouded by something malignant. At first I thought it was him, that he was malignant. But on closer inspection, I realised that this was external, not tied to Loki’s body and that it was feeding off Loki’s signature. It’s similar to what I see in victims of gaslighting or brainwashing. Except then, the second signature, the negative one is created through the person’s own signature, a doubt, belief or insecurity around which an entire identity is made. The difference here is that the only link between the malignant signature and Loki’s is the channel which feeds it. The malignant aura is arrogant, hungry and most of all, evil. It feeds on Loki’s connection to chaos and Loki’s power, his strength. The signature has been imposed onto him.” In the time that Cora had explained what she had learned of Loki, the man himself hadn’t moved. He had fixed his stare on a point on the glass wall opposite him, or something beyond that and his gaze hadn’t wavered.

Callista swivelled the chair she was on, her shoulder length hair mussing around her and her brown eyes coming to rest on Cora. “Isn’t this what you saw with Bucky as well? You were able to separate them or the sorts. Can you do that with that asshole?”

Thor rumbled, making his displeasure at the disrespect of his brother known. Cora made a mental note of it, knowing she might have use of that later. “The Winter Soldier’s own signature had been completely muted. In his case, I simply removed the imposed signature and then nudged his own signature back to life. Those triggers, the words were what connected his signature and the imposed one. I redefined the order of the words, separating their meanings even in that order so that even if it was used on him, it wouldn’t trigger him. After that what you did with Steve’s help was basically help him nurture his own signature. With Loki, I would have to do something else.”

“Do you know what that ‘something else’ would be?” Asked Tony.

“Are you saying that you can help Loki?” Thor’s voice had taken a new tone, one of hope. Cora stubbed the cigarette that had now almost burned through completely on one of the ashtrays that now littered the building, a gesture by Tony to show her that this was her home too, just after she moved in a couple of days ago.

“I’m saying I can try. When I was in S.H.I.E.L.D, I functioned primarily as an interrogator, because of the human polygraph thing. Barnes was one of only two cases where I have actively interacted with the signature. The other was Phil Coulson, after T.A.H.I.T.I.” The more Cora observed Loki, the more she thought of how she had felt when she was in the cell with him, the less she liked the solution that presented itself.

“Okay Smokes. What do you need?”

An hour later, Cora felt humbled by the reaction that Tony and Callista had to her plan. Worry emanated off them in waves. They had tried to talk her out of it, saying they didn’t need Loki’s information at the cost of what she would have pay to help him. Even Thor reluctantly said that he wasn’t sure if she should go ahead with her plan. But if there was something out there that was stronger than a god, strong enough to meddle with a god’s signature, then Earth needed to know. And even if Loki wasn’t going to be cooperative after she had helped him, she didn’t believe that anyone should have such a malignant entity forced onto them. As they left the room, Thor put a hand on her shoulder.

“What you are going to do, the price you will pay and then more that you might have to pay, its value has no measure. None but my mother would have done this to themselves for Loki. Not even I. There is nothing I can say that will convey the gratitude I feel.” Cora put her hand on Thor’s and allowed understanding pass from her to him. The tension in his shoulders was soothed by the tiniest amount, but Cora could not spare more than that. Nodding at him, she went to the cell door, where Tony and Callista waited for her.

“Remember, do not come in to get me till I call for you, no matter what he does. And under no circumstances should the device that limits his magic be unlocked. If that happens for even a second, you can assume I’m dead. Callista, get the medical bay ready. Tony, please stock up on MnMs and Skittles. If I survive this, I’m going to take a week long break.” Cora sent another small brush of calm through her signature, nodding once at Tony, a friend she was beginning to grow fond off and then giving Callista, her best mate, a quick hug before she unlocked the glass doors and stepped into Loki’s cell.

Loki had moved from the cot to the centre of the cell. His smile was lewd, his jade eyes cold as he gave Cora the once over. She returned the gesture, noting the thin gold bracelets on his wrists that Tony had asked Carol Danvers to procure from her contacts. Even in just an Avengers issued tee shirt and pants, Loki looked intimidating, his body lean but alert, like a tiger stalking his prey. And she had no doubt that in his head, she was nothing but prey.

“You shouldn’t have come alone, pet. I must say, with a ravishing form like yours, it will be hard for me to focus and cooperate, when all I can think of is how many ways I can destroy you.”

Cora reached into her consciousness, letting her eyes lose focus as she looked at Loki. She could feel the malignant signature throb around him. ‘Good,’ she thought, ‘the more he focuses on scaring me, the less he can focus on what I’m doing.’ She allowed her mind to find Loki’s signature, a weak pulse that slowly tapered into the channel that fed the imposed identity. She tethered herself to the point where Loki’s signature and the entity met, a miniscule surge of energy that wrapped itself around the base of the channel, before bringing her focus back to his physical form that had now moved closer to her.

“Have you nothing to say, kitten? Are you here to waste my time?” Another surge of malice throbbed around Cora as Loki’s smile grew predatory, “Or are you here as a gift, an offering to my needs so I may cooperate?”

Cora ignored the meaning behind his words, taking a deep breath before looking up at him. “I’m here to free you.” She didn’t wait for his response, reaching into her signature and finding what she was looking for in a memory that she had locked away years ago. The tendril of energy that connected her to him and to the channel that fed the entity burned between them, expanding like lightening across a stormy sky as pain flooded her body and coursed through it into the feeding channel. Blinding white light burned her eyes as the memory surfaced, the smell of blood permeating the air around her. Another shock of pain coursed through her and then into their link, like fire engulfing her mind and devouring anything it came in contact with. She vaguely registered a deep howl before she felt her body being lifted and thrown.

Her skull cracked against something and as her vision cleared, she felt strong hands wrap themselves in her shirt and lift her. She came face to face with Loki, rage and power burning in his eyes, turning them dark as his pupils expanded.

“What are you doing?” His words were growled out and she didn’t miss the shaking of his form. She didn’t reply and called on another memory. She felt him react to the pain before she could register the memory of smoke and dust choking her. She had been expecting the torture that the memories would entail, but what she hadn’t expected was to have him slam her into the ground and bring his fist with force to her face. This time the smell of blood was real as was the copper taste that flooded her mouth when her teeth cut into her lips. Even as she let out a hoarse cry, she channelled it into the bond that tethered her to the feeding link between his signature and the entity. She heard him roar and felt the next blow that he landed on her stomach. The weakening of her body meant she didn’t have the strength to focus the agony into the tether, so she let it flood her mind and body, feeling each punch as he rained them down on her stomach, her face. She could feel the malignant signature try to detach itself from Loki’s signature, desperately drawing on her bond for relief, only to be met with more pain. She lost herself to his fury as she felt bone crack and blood flow. The pulsing of malice around her had reduced, though she couldn’t be entirely sure of whether it had actually reduced or if she wasn’t being able to sense it because of the torment that was being rained down on her. Her thoughts started to merge into each other, memories from days she wished she didn’t remember surging forward. Just as Cora caved, deciding to let go of the connection, she felt pain like nothing she had ever felt before course through her body and heard screaming above her.

“Then am I not your mother?”  
“You are not!”

As darkness enveloped her and the malicious pulsing stopped, leaving only pain in its wake, Cora vaguely realised that the final memory had not been hers.


	2. Trust Yourself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki finds out what the specialist did to him.

_“Cora we’re coming in.”_

_“Stay back, Loki!”_

_“What did she do to me?”_

The voices drifted over Cora’s head. She felt a hand raise her head and pain shot through the back of her skull and in-between her eyes. A low moan left her lips as darkness overwhelmed her again.

All Cora could register was agony. As she slowly gained consciousness, she realised that she was nothing but a broken bag of pain. There was a burning in her abdomen, under her ribs and back. Her face ached and sharp stabs of pain kept shooting through her ankle.

“Hey Smokes, you with us?” That was Tony’s voice. She focused on it. “You’re okay, kid. The spike in your pulse is telling us you’re conscious. We’ve got you.” Cora slowly opened her eyes, squinting to gauge the amount of light she would encounter. The room seemed to be dimly lit, so she allowed her eyes to open completely, only to find that her right eye opened only half way. Tony was leaning over her, adjusting something above her head. He stepped back and picked up a remote, using it to raise half the bed, so she was sitting. She noticed that she was hooked up to various machines. Callista walked into her range of sight and joined Tony, who was standing on her left. She entered something on the tab she was holding before placing it on the table next to Cora’s bed.

“Did it work?” Cora’s voice was hoarse and her throat dry. “Fuck, how long have I been out?” Silently, Callista handed her a cup with a straw. Taking a few sips, she looked back at the pair that shuffled nervously. “Tony, how long have I been out?”

Callista sat down on the edge of her bed, adjusting the angle a bit more so that Cora could see the rest of the room. “How much do you remember?”

Cora let out a dry chuckle. “Everything till I passed out.”

Callista played with her fingers. “Yeah. You umm… You took quite a beating.” Cora let out another chuckle when pain drove like a spike through her ribs. Noticing the harsh breathing, Callista reached up and opened the valve to what Cora assumed must have been morphine. “This should help with the pain. So yeah, you took a beating but you didn’t give us the signal to come in. After you passed out, Loki kind of lost it. He huddled up in a corner and had a mental breakdown, I guess. We got you out while Thor stood guard to make sure Loki didn’t try anything. We kept you in an induced coma so that the initial healing could take place without you having to deal with the pain. Tony also figured it would be good for your powers, abilities, whatever you call it.”

Cora looked around to see if she could figure out how long she had been out, but there was nothing that gave it away. “Okay Cal, you have five seconds to tell me how long I was out for before I decide to tell Barnes that you keep a picture of him in your wallet.”

Callista rolled her eyes. “Your dumb ass got yourself knocked out for an entire day. We put you out for three and then you burned through one more.”

“I’ve been out for five days?!”

“You’re surprised, Smokes? You were, might I remind you, pummelled by a creature not of this planet. How you aren’t dead is beyond all of us, including Point Break. Cut yourself some slack, aye?” Tony frowned at Cora as she held on to Callista while she attempted to kick her covers off. “What are you doing?”

“Need to check on Loki.” Cora had managed to get her feet onto the ground and winced as pain shot up her leg, feeling like fire in her muscles. Her breathing felt laboured suddenly and a wave of exhaustion washed over her. She glanced up to see Callista shoot her a look of pity before gently pushing her back into the pillows. “How bad is it exactly, Cal?”

Callista settled her into the bed before picking up the tablet and handing it to Cora. As Cora went over the diagnosis, her eyes widened. “If I’m reading this correctly, I have three broken ribs, a blowout fracture around my eye and a broken nose along with a ruptured spleen?” Cora looked up at her two friends who were casting sympathetic grimaces her way.

“You also have a sprained ankle. It twisted beneath you when you fell on it.” Tony patted her leg awkwardly before sitting down on the other side of her bed. “You’re stuck here for another few days before you can move about. You deserve the rest. And we stocked up on caramel MnMs and berry Skittles. Catch up on some TV or reading while you have the time. There’s no doubt that you’re going to be back at work as soon as we clear you.”

Cora dropped her head in her hands, letting herself really feel the extent of her discomfort. The pain in her ankle had subsided but the broken ribs still made it painful to breathe deeply. The right side of her face throbbed as a dull ache spread across her skull. Lifting her head, she asked, “How is Loki now?”

“That is what you’re worried about right now?” Callista looked like she wanted to smack Cora upside the head but was using all her self-control not to. “Someone tried to make pulp out of you and you want to know how he is? Are you mental?” Callista should have known the answer to that. But somehow it truly sunk in when Cora asked for a wheelchair so she could visit Loki.

Loki stared at the ground. No one had come in to clean the blood that he had shed there. He wondered how long ago that had been. It felt like years and at the same time, he could remember the sound of his fist hitting soft flesh like it was yesterday. He clenched his fingers. No one had come to interrogate him, or even look at him since they had removed the girl from his cage. He was sure that he had killed her. He wondered why the idea of taking her life seemed disgusting when he had taken countless others before. The answer was there, he could hear it whispered in his ear, but he chose not to hear it. How could he trust that it was the truth?

He startled when he heard the glass doors slide open. A doctor whom he didn’t know but had seen before walked in. He let a mask of neutrality slip over his face as he looked at the woman before focusing on the blood that had dried. She had been the person who supervised the moving of the body of the girl Loki had wreaked havoc on. Her hand was in the pocket of the coat she wore and Loki knew without a doubt that she had her fingers wrapped around a weapon of sorts.

“No snarky comment?” Her voice was laced with poison as she flung the words at him.

“Cal. Leave us please.”

Loki’s head moved so fast he could hear the air move around him. Behind the doctor was the girl with the choppy hair, though she was barely recognisable. She was slumped in a wheelchair, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and another covering her legs. Purple bruises blossomed under her eyes, one eye swelling to the point where she could hardly open it. Her hair was ruffled, sticking up in odd directions and little tags held the cuts smattered around her face closed. Loki instinctively backed further into the cot, drawing his legs up and crossing them while his fists clenched under his knees. She should have been dead.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Loki.” The girl looked at him before glancing around. “Cal, once I talk to him, can you make sure someone cleans the cell? It should have been done that day itself.” The doctor nodded, turning to glare at Loki. She pulled out a gun like object from her pocket and dropped it in the girl’s lap, only to have it handed back to her. “I won’t need it.” Loki watched as the two women exchanged words with nothing but their eyes before the doctor pocketed the gun and stepped out, letting the door slide shut.

“I’m not here to hurt you, Loki. I promise. I’m Cora McKinnon.” Her voice sounded different, hoarse and weak. Loki narrowed his eyes at her, but made no move to get up. “I’m sorry that no one came. Someone should have checked in with you, but Thor isn’t here and the others must have been worried about -” she stopped to let a cough slip past and he didn’t fail to notice how her hand moved to her chest, as if it hurt her to breathe. “They must have been worried about the effects the incident.”

“What did you do to me?” Loki needed to know. He remembered flashes of the kind of pain that had coursed through his body. “What are you?” Surely a human could not bring a god to break the way she had? Even with the ugly bruises and scabbing cuts that marred her face, Loki could see the kindness that her open eye held and he fought the tiniest blossom of comfort he felt.

“I gave you back control over yourself. And I am merely human. ”

Piercing green eyes met brown ones. “You were able to physically hurt me. How?”

Cora didn’t need to read Loki’s signature to feel the tension. He knew something had changed, but he couldn’t figure out what. Cora wondered if he’d be able to understand it himself if she nudged him to think in the right direction. “Do you feel different, Loki?”

Loki paused. He had felt different, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. “I asked you a question first.”

A small smile made its way on Cora’s face. “Fair enough. I’ll answer your question if you answer mine.”

Loki stared at her face, wishing he could search her mind. Yet somehow, his instinct told him she wasn’t playing games with him. “Yes, I feel different.”

She nodded. “I didn’t physically hurt you. Did you know you were being manipulated?”

Cora didn’t miss the slight recoil in Loki’s posture but he covered it up by changing his position, letting his legs fall from the cot. He brought his fists to his lap and looked hard at them before setting his stony gaze on her. “Yes.” His voice had changed in the slightest way possible, a quiver right at the end of that one syllable. “What exactly did you do to me?”

Cora could feel the painkiller’s effect wearing off and she knew she didn’t have much time before she would need to rest again. She needed to start creating trust between herself and Loki if she wanted him to co-operate. Taking a split second decision, she decided that it was only fair that he knew what she had done to him.

“Do you know about signatures, Loki? How each living being has one?” The blank look on Loki’s face gave her the answer. “Well, it’s like an aura. It stems from within a person and creates a space around them, influencing things in that space.” She watched as understanding dawned on Loki’s features.

“You mean souls?” He asked, curiosity replacing his stoniness.

“I – I hadn’t thought of it like that. But I guess you could call it that. Whoever was controlling you did it by setting a parasite on your soul. It fed on your strengths and grew stronger, slowly subduing your soul, your spirit and taking its place.” There was no hint of surprise or recognition on Loki’s face. He had known what was happening. “I see that this doesn’t surprise you.”

Loki shrugged. “It was easier to let it be than fight it. The consequences of the latter was not something I wanted to face.”

Cora made a mental note of that statement. It would have to be something they came back to, if not now, then later. “Well, I separated the parasite from you.”

Again Loki did not react to this news. _So he had known what she had done. _He waited a beat and then realised that Cora would not tell him what he wanted to know unless he asked for it. “How?” He gritted out.

“I can interact with people’s signatures, their souls, as you call it. I created a connection between my signature and what was left of yours, before flooding it with memories of pain. Or at least initially it was memories. You see, the easiest way to fight something that feeds on strength is giving it weakness. You could do nothing but endure the memory of my pain, because it was mine and you had no control over it. When the parasite tried to draw on your strength, it couldn’t find it because I was basically invading your signature, all it could find was my pain. The part of you that was controlled by the parasite reacted violently to that, to defend itself from the source of the pain, so you inflicted more pain on me, unknowingly creating a cycle where I fed pain into your system which the parasite then drew on. This weakened the parasite. Towards the end though, something in my memories triggered something in yours, a memory that hurt you, made you feel weak. That is what completely destroyed the parasite, the force of a pain that stemmed from deep within you.”

In the time that Cora had explained what she had done to Loki, he had gotten up from the cot and turned his back to her, facing the room beyond the glass walls. After a breath, he turned and Cora was met with a cold and hard gaze, one she remembered from when she had first met him five days ago. His voice was dripping with hatred when he spoke. “And you control me now?”

Cora had known he would come to this conclusion. She let out a huff of breath, the sound of it harsh and uneven to her own ears. “Do I look strong enough to be able to control you? You said you knew that you were being manipulated. Look at me now and tell me you feel the way you felt then, that you can feel my signature superimposed on yours.” The pain in her ribs was growing with each passing moment but she knew she had to finish this conversation with Loki, convince him that he was in control of himself now.

“Then why aren’t you dead? I should have killed you.”

Cora dropped her gaze to her lap. “I was expecting you to try, and somewhere deep down, maybe I expected it to happen as well. But I knew that when I pushed the pain into your signature and therefore into the parasite, that small part of you left that truly belonged to you would not fight. Violence is not in your nature. It was in the parasite’s and whatever damage was done, was done when it had absolute control. After that, the parasite and you were at conflict with each other and that weakened your attack against me.” She lifted her head to look at Loki, her eyes meeting his and he was startled to find pride shining in her soft brown eyes. “You’re stronger than you realise.” She continued, a small smile lifting the corners of her cracked lips. “You managed to push the parasite away faster than I had anticipated. If I’m being honest, I feel like this -” she gestured down her broken frame, “is not as bad as it could have been.”

She winced as she placed her hand back on the wheels of the wheelchair and Loki saw tears slowly fill her eyes. Blinking them away, she looked at him with a tenderness that he hadn’t received in many years. “We have more to talk about, but I need to rest. I’ll let you take in everything I’ve told you.” She twisted the handle on the wheel, her chair turning away from him. She rolled herself to the doors of the cell, but before she opened them, she turned around once, wincing as the movement sent pain through her sides. “I know it’s hard to process, and that you feel like you can’t trust anyone. I won’t ask you to trust me, but I will ask you to remember what I said. You are strong, more than you realise. More than whatever was trying to twist you into something dark and damaged. If nothing else, trust your strength. Trust yourself.” With those final words, she turned and left the cell, the doors sliding shut as Loki watched the doctor wheel her away.


	3. Compromised

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki seems to be unravelling and Agent Cora McKinnon is compromised.

Loki began to mark the passing of days by Cora’s visits. Weeks passed as her bruises changed from a violent purple to a sickly green and then to pallid yellow. She gave up the wheelchair for a terrible limp that slowly morphed back into her confident stride. She stopped clutching her ribs when she moved and her hair would now stay tucked behind her ears.

Loki found it easier to be honest with the mortal than to lie and play games with her. It was an unnatural feeling for him, to feel at ease with each truth that left his lips, yet he didn’t let himself make the mistake of thinking of her as a friend or ally, or someone he could trust. A routine developed, he’d know that it was time for her to meet him when he’d see her through the many layers of glass, often talking to the doctor or to one of the men that called themselves heroes. She’d shoot him a smile from the corridors and anxiety would build like a slowly burning flame in his chest. Yet when she would enter his cell, her slowly healing body still seeming frail in front of his tall stature, a blanket of confidence would settle over him. 

_ He should have known that it wasn’t right. _

They would exchange information. He told her about Thanos, his plans and his conquests, his minions and his lieutenants. In return, she answered his questions. He had started with mild questions before trying to glean more and more information from her, but he found that she was too smart to be trapped like that. He kept reminding himself that she was a trained interrogator, and that unlike Asgardians, mortals of Midgard used emotion and intellect as tools, not brute force. She would often tell him that she was not at liberty to answer some of his questions instead of lying to him. That was yet another thing he discovered, that she never lied to him.

From her, he received a kindness that hadn’t been shown to him since Frigga had died. She had had a table and two chairs moved into his cell, so that they could sit in comfort when she came. In their mutual exchanging of information, he had mentioned that he read something about the universe stones in an old tome in the Asgardian library. After that, she began to bring him books for him to read. She brought him books on science, astrology and cosmology. And once in a while, she’d slip in some Midgardian literature or art. This routine became one he was comfortable with. She’d come in the morning, after he would be returned to his cell from his morning ablutions. They’d sit facing each other for hours, often even in silence as she would note down her observations and the information she received from him. She’d leave when the doctor would return to call her for lunch and would return once in the evening if she had a new book for him. However, there was an unspoken rule that neither of them broke, that to not talk of their pasts. He learned how her powers worked, and she questioned him about his magic. When he asked her about how she got her powers, she had shaken her head and left early. That evening, an unexplainable sense of sorrow shrouded him and he went to sleep with an uncomfortable ache in his head. She never asked him about what Thanos had done to him, had offered him. She knew that the price of personal information was personal information and she was not going to ask for something that she wasn’t ready to return.

Days turned to weeks and weeks began turning into months. Loki calculated that he had been in the cell for six months now, and had known the mortal for two of those months. It was around that time when one day, after returning to his cell from his morning shower, he knew that she wasn’t coming to visit him. The tell-tale feeling of nervousness didn’t build in his stomach and surely enough, minutes ticked by and someone was bringing him his lunch. As he watched an agent slide the tray through the slot cut for that, he felt a sudden anxiousness tighten in his chest. Seconds later, fear engulfed his mind like he had never known and wrapped invisible fingers around his throat. He tore at his collar frantically, wondering what was happening to him. His eyes glazed over and somewhere in the distance, he heard the clatter of metal on glass and a call for a doctor. The fear grew like a dark cloud, his thoughts becoming incomprehensible and his voice getting lost in the tightness of whatever was taking control over him. And suddenly, it was gone as fast as it had come. Loki gulped air, each breath seeming to bring back some normalcy to his mind. He fumbled, not realising that during whatever had happened, he had fallen to his knees. Just as he managed to get himself to his feet, something pinched his back and electricity flooded every cell and nerve. He was lost to unconsciousness before he even hit the floor.

“Are you ready?” Captain Rogers asked Cora as she pushed the earpiece in. She had been at the tower for two months now and she still hadn’t gotten used to being a part of the Avengers. She wondered how Callista simply fit in, making fun of both Captain America and the Winter Soldier like it was not a big deal. But then again, her best friend had been working with them for over five years, while Cora had only worked her way up the ladder at S.H.I.E.L.D for the last two years after her life had been ripped to shreds.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She shrugged. The mission was simple. Her transfer from S.H.I.E.L.D to the Avengers had been done under the table and wasn’t in the books. For all official purposes, she was still a S.H.I.E.L.D agent and now Nick Fury needed her to identify a spy in S.H.I.E.L.D’s administration. She was to go in as an on duty agent while Natasha Romanov, the famous assassin of all time formally briefed the top bosses at S.H.I.E.L.D about Loki and the progress with him. During the briefing, she was to read each signature and try to identify the spy.

“Landing in five. McKinnon, get ready to deplane.” Cora shook her head as the Black Widow’s voice echoed in her ear as well as in the small aircraft. Cora tugged her S.H.I.E.L.D issued uniform, smoothing the creases. The starched collar made her neck itch and she longed to be back in the tower, in her comfortable joggers and sweatshirts.

As the briefing began, Cora let her eyes glaze over and let the signatures in the room become the focus of her thoughts. The room was crowded, nearly fifty people seated around the large circular table. She could sense a lack of interest, placidity and exhaustion as she sifted through signatures. She blinked her eyes back into focus as she reached a signature that pulsed with desire. Schooling her face to prevent the disgust from showing, she watched as an old man with sagging skin and a bald head let his eyes rove over Agent Romanov’s body. She couldn’t control the roll of her eyes as he licked his lips. Making a mental note of not venturing near him or his signature, she was about to refocus on reading signatures when the Director of Communications excused himself and left the room. Cora narrowed her eyes at his back. He reeked of apprehension and nervousness.

Cora nodded at Natasha when she made a show of volunteering to read the report that was supposedly an account of Cora’s observations of Loki. Calling for a short break before the report, Natasha followed Cora out of the conference room.

“Did you pick up anything?” Steve’s voice seemed loud in her ears.

“Nothing of interest. No one particularly wants to be here. Loki is the Avengers’ problem now. This is more perfunctory than anything else to most people here.”

“But?”

“The Director of Communications seemed off kilter. He left a while ago and hasn’t returned.”

Natasha bit her lip before nodding at Cora. “He was fidgety as well, something seemed to be bothering him. Fury should look into him and his connections.”

“Cora, do you agree? I need to hear it from you.” Steve asked.

“Yes.” She sighed before rolling her shoulders. “I’m going to grab a quick smoke before we go back in. Now that we have a suspect for Fury, let’s wrap this up and get back to the tower as soon as we can.” She gave Natasha another quick nod before heading to the small open courtyard.

Cora looked across the courtyard at the glass building where people milled around. Her cigarette dangled loosely from her fingers as she inhaled the minty tobacco. Her eyes wandered till they landed on a figure strolling towards her. The Director of Communications had a large smile on his face he greeted her.

“Agent McKinnon. It is a pleasure to meet you. Impressive, what you’ve done with Loki and how you’re gathering information from him.”

Cora didn’t risk trying to read his signature. He was too close and would notice if she let her eyes lose focus completely. Instead she focused intently on him, letting her gut instincts lead her. “Thank you Director.” She gave him a polite smile with a nod. Her eyes flicked to where he was fiddling with his ring.

“Walk with me?” He gestured towards the conference building. Cora fell into step with him. “I hear you have some abilities, something that was triggered by an accident?”

“Yes.” As they drew near the building, she pretended to stumble. Physical contact made it easy to read signatures and she expected him to reach out to support her. What she didn’t expect was for him to reach for a door behind her him and let her fall into a storage closet. He stepped to the side and she heard the sound of a lock clicking shut.

“And you’ve been employed to use those abilities to find out if I’m the spy?”

Cora staggered to her feet, only to find her back to a wall, the Director standing between her and her escape. She put on a mask of confusion, an attempt to hide the anxiousness that was winding like a tight coil around her chest. “Spy? What are you talking about?”

She did not see his fist coming and when it made contact with her newly healed ribs, she knew that the game had been given away. She heard Steve tell her to hold tight through her ear piece but before she could respond, the Director had his hands around her throat, clenching his fingers around her windpipe. Tears welled in her eyes as she struggled against him, wishing that Callista had cleared her to learn combat training before the mission. The man had pushed his entire weight on her, her back to the wall as he let his lower body immobilise hers. She couldn’t make out what he was saying as her brain struggled with the lack of oxygen. Fear wracked her body as she fought. She wasn’t strong enough to move him and his intentions were clearly to kill her. As her lungs tightened, desperate for air, the thought that she might die before someone got to her made the fear raise its ugly head once again. And then it was gone. Light flooded the dark closet and the Director’s body slumped forward, his head falling on Cora’s neck. Behind him stood Agent Natasha Romanov with a gun.

The jet had barely landed when Callista stormed through the doors. “Cora. Medbay, now!” She ordered, grabbing Cora by her wrist. Behind her came a bewildered Tony Stark. Callista stopped for a second and Cora could see wheels turning in her head. “Actually, everyone, conference room first.”

When Callista had herded the Avengers into one of the lounges, she slumped against a wall. Cora’s eyes drifted from one Avenger to the other, hoping someone would tell her what was going on, but from the blank expression on Steve, Natasha, Bucky and Clint’s face and the absolute confusion on Tony’s and Bruce’s, she realised she wasn’t getting an answer from anyone other than the brunette who seemed to be panicking internally in front of her. Cora sighed. She had had a long day and all she wanted was to crawl into her bed and sleep. The sun had set hours ago and she had not eaten since the Hydra spy had tried to squeeze the life out of her. She was about to tell Callista that whatever the crisis was, it could wait for a night when Tony set a hand on her shoulder. He motioned for her to stay sitting. Callista stood, looking as if she had seen a ghost.

“Loki had a panic attack.” Callista’s voice was emotionless, giving away none of the anxiety that was seeping into everyone else’s signatures through her.

“And?” Steve knew that the doctor wasn’t keeping them from some well-deserved rest because of a panic attack.

“Well, we thought it was a panic attack. The agent who was delivering Loki’s lunch said that Loki looked like he was choking on something. When I heard the alarms go off, I rushed as soon as I could. It looked like Loki was recovering but I wasn’t taking a risk so I tasered him.” Callista rattled off like a train, pacing across the room. Cora glanced around and the only people who looked like they knew something seemed to be Tony and Bruce. “We got him to the medbay, shackled him to a bed and ran some tests when another agent walked in and updated us about Cora’s situation.”

“My situation?” Cora asked, feeling a little dumb as she realised what situation as soon as the question left her mouth. “Oh. That. Okay?”

“Aren’t you seeing it?” Callista threw her hands in the air, glaring at Cora. Tony stepped forward, wondering since when he had become the practical one.

“Cora, Loki looked like he was choking, unable to breathe when you were on the mission.” Cora looked at him with an incredulous expression. He sighed. “His attack, panic attack, happened at exactly the same time that you were being throttled by the Director of Communications. You’ve been compromised.”

Cora felt the air leave her lungs again for a second time that day. Maybe it was exhaustion, but the dots still weren’t connecting in her head. But every agent knew what those words meant.  _ You have been compromised _ . She stood slowly, her ribs hurting slightly and she looked around the room. It seemed like understanding had dawned on everyone else except her. The room’s atmosphere was charged with tension and Callista backed away from her. Everyone bristled, as if they expected Cora to attack them.

“I don’t – I don’t understand guys?” Cora watched as Natasha slowly moved towards her. She saw Bruce hand her a pair of handcuffs. “What are you doing?” Natasha held her hands up, showing she meant her no harm.

“Cora, Loki’s controlling you. That’s why he reacted when you were attacked. You’ve been compromised. We’re going to put you somewhere safe until we figure out how to fix this, okay?”

Cora looked from Natasha to Tony, from Tony to Callista. “You believe this? You believe I’m being controlled? After all the information he’s given us?”

Tony’s eyes softened. He pushed past the others and lay a comforting hand on Cora’s shoulder. “We cannot be sure of anything right now, Cora. It can’t be a coincidence that Loki, a god from another world started having panic attacks after you did what you did for him. We can’t be sure of the information that he’s giving us either. There are people who are working on verifying it. We’ve got Danvers collecting news and as soon as we can get back in touch with Thor, he’ll help us as well. But till we receive any clarity on anything, we have to assume that you’ve been compromised.”

“Please stop saying that.” Cora gently pushed Tony aside. “I don’t know what to believe. I’m the one who has the ability to tell people whether they’re being controlled or manipulated. How am I going to convince you that I’m not under that same trap? Fuck! How am I going to convince myself?” Her eyes flitted from one person to another. Everyone had stood up and she realised that it was an act of preparation, should she lash out. Swallowing down a sob, she staggered backwards till her back met a wall. Letting her head fall to her chest, she let out a sigh. “You don’t need to cuffs. I’ll go willingly.”


End file.
